Aging Successfully

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.  Abraham Lincoln

Those who have failed miserably are often the first to see God's formula for success.  Erwin Lutzer

I was listening to a commercial recently and it was talking about helping your family member’s age successfully.  What exactly does that mean?  Is that opposed to aging unsuccessfully?  I always heard that you could age gracefully, not successfully.

Aging is kind of an odd thing in itself.  Skin that once was smooth becomes wrinkled and stretches all out of proportion. Our hair grays, eyesight goes bad and our memory fades. 

When I started thinking about aging successfully, I thought of all of the characters in the Bible who lived for hundreds of years longer than we do.  In this day and age if you live to be a hundred that is a major accomplishment.  In the Old Testament it was nothing to live to be 500 or 600 years old.

In today’s world, if you age successfully this means you have attained wealth, achieved popularity, profit or distinction and reach the ripe old age of 80.   If you were to age gracefully this is characterized by elegance and beauty of form. I think we can all age gracefully and successfully if we use applications from the Bible.

There are two Hebrew names in the Bible that mean graceful and success.  The name Hannah in Hebrew means graceful.  Hannah was the mother of Samuel.  If you remember her story, she was unable to have children but she prayed to the Lord and he honored her with Samuel.

The Hebrew name that means success is Elisha.  If you read of the many miracles that Elisha performed on God’s behalf he was very successful.  He raised the Shunammite woman’s son from the dead, purified a pot of stew to feed the sons of the prophets and healed Naaman’s leprosy.  Elisha was a successful prophet by the Bible’s account. 

Success to God is not the same thing that we often associate success with on earth.  If we place all of our hope on the success of earth we will be left empty handed. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to be a success on earth by Your standards.  That means if I achieve success in my job I give to others of the blessings you have given me.  I can also age gracefully.  If I have love in my heart for others and show it then I guess that means I can be gracefully successful in Your eyes.  Help me to use the correct measuring stick when I apply these to my life.

Scripture: If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but wisdom brings success. A serpent may bite when it is not charmed; the babbler is no different. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up; The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness.  Ecclesiastes 10:10-13

And Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation. “No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God. “Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.  1 Samuel 2:1-3